Unusually clear beer...what happened?

[mcmeador]

Good evening! I have brewed 8 beers since October using my Anvil Foundry, which I have fermented in my Spike CF5 and kegged via closed pressure transfer after a 2-3 day cold-crash at 38 degrees. My beers are usually very cloudy until I get to the last quarter of the keg and then become crystal clear.

The last beer I brewed was a Mosaic pale ale using the same grain bill and yeast as a previous pale ale that I brewed. The only thing I changed was the hops. I made sure to follow the exact same fermentation schedule as the previous pale ale and cold-crashed for the same length of time (3 days) because I wanted the only variable to be the hops.

After dumping almost a pint after tapping the keg, I noticed that the beer seemed unusually clear. Here I am now 5 beers in, and it is super clear, maybe even clearer than the American light lager I brewed before this and fined with gelatin unlike the rest of my beers. While many posts on here ask, “What did I do wrong?” I am asking, “What did I do right?”

The only idea I have is that I did not dump any trub from this batch. Normally I will dump as much trub as possible through the bottom dump valve before cold-crashing. I didn’t do that this time. I know dumping trub stirs stuff up, but I always figured the cold-crash would settle everything out before I kegged.

So what do you all think? Does that sound like the “culprit” or could there be something else I’m not considering or that I might not have even realized happened that could be contributing to the clearness of my beer?

 

[mcmeador]

Bump. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[AzOr]

The only thing that comes to mind is the timing of the hops. When I whirlpool or dry hop, my beer takes much longer to clear, even if using gelatin. If my last hop addition is 2-5 minutes left in boil, my beer seems to drop clear much sooner.

I have been using the clear beer draught system and that seems to help quite a bit as well (if clear beer is your goal).

 

[Young Brewing]

My beers will definitely clear up as I move through the keg but I usually see peak clarity after about 10 pours. I tend to avoid shaking or disrupting the trub as much as possible for this reason exactly. I had a couple of brews where I was pretty careless and got a good bit of it mixed up in the beer and it caused perceptual cloudiness that did not go away, even with a bit of cold crashing.

That being said I don't have a conical like yours with the ability to dump / harvest yeast, but I would play around a bit more and see if this trend continues. If dumping is providing you with nothing more than cloudy beer and you don't want to reuse the yeast, maybe continue with leaving it all in there before crashing.

 

[mcmeador]

The only thing that comes to mind is the timing of the hops. When I whirlpool or dry hop, my beer takes much longer to clear, even if using gelatin. If my last hop addition is 2-5 minutes left in boil, my beer seems to drop clear much sooner.

I have been using the clear beer draught system and that seems to help quite a bit as well (if clear beer is your goal).

Both of the pale ales I brewed had additions at 60, 10, and 5 minutes and were dry-hopped with one ounce of hops, so I don’t think it was the timing of the hop additions that made the difference. I don’t really put too much effort into getting super clear beer, but it’s nice to have it without trying very hard.

My beers will definitely clear up as I move through the keg but I usually see peak clarity after about 10 pours. I tend to avoid shaking or disrupting the trub as much as possible for this reason exactly. I had a couple of brews where I was pretty careless and got a good bit of it mixed up in the beer and it caused perceptual cloudiness that did not go away, even with a bit of cold crashing.

That being said I don't have a conical like yours with the ability to dump / harvest yeast, but I would play around a bit more and see if this trend continues. If dumping is providing you with nothing more than cloudy beer and you don't want to reuse the yeast, maybe continue with leaving it all in there before crashing.

I think I may avoid dumping any trub going forward unless I intend to age in the fermenter for a while. The only reason I was doing it was because I like having the trub level as low as possible so I know I can put the racking arm in the 6:00 position and not worry about sucking up any trub when kegging. Takes the guesswork out of determining how far down I can point the arm. People say to just slowly turn the arm downward while racking as far as you can while still pulling clear beer, but I have found it’s not that simple. I have clogged the keg dip tube multiple times before while the beer in the line still appeared perfectly clear.

 

[Brooothru]

Related question: for those of you who own/have one, does the Brewer's Hardware canister filter (400 micron) perform well? I usually like, but don't obsess, over clear beer. I normally let time and temperature do the work for me, but there's an upcoming Fall competition I'm starting to brew for and I need to speed up the clarity for a few prospective entries (Helles and two other lagers). Gelatin would work but I'd rather stay from additives.

 

[Young Brewing]

Related question: for those of you who own/have one, does the Brewer's Hardware canister filter (400 micron) perform well? I usually like, but don't obsess, over clear beer. I normally let time and temperature do the work for me, but there's an upcoming Fall competition I'm starting to brew for and I need to speed up the clarity for a few prospective entries (Helles and two other lagers). Gelatin would work but I'd rather stay from additives.

I’ve heard really good things about those filters so long as they are below 500 micron. Anything above and you’re not going to filter out what you’re looking for. You experience some clogging issues at 200-300 micron but it does the job well. 400 should be good for what you’re looking for but just know you’re not gonna be filtering out any of the yeast.

 

[Brooothru]

My normal process is to cap the fermenter at 5 points above FG, raise the temperature slowly for D-rest and carb up with a spunding valve. When FG is stable I soft crash to settle yeast, dump trub/harvest yeast, then crash to 35~38F for conditioning and/or lagering. If I let things settle for 4~6 weeks the beer comes out pretty clear. I don't have the luxury of time for these however.